Jim Dickinson

Jim Dickinson is an American record producer, pianist and singer. He was born James Luther Dickinson in Little Rock, Arkansas, November 15,1941, and moved to Memphis, Tennessee at an early age.

Biography

After attending school at Baylor University, he returned to Memphis and played on recording sessions for Bill Justis, and at Chips Moman's American Studios. Dickinson recorded what has been called the last great record on the Sun label, "Cadillac Man" b/w "My Babe" by the Jesters, playing piano and singing lead on both sides, even though he wasn't even an actual member of the group. In the late 1960s, Dickinson joined with fellow Memphis musicians Charlie Freeman, Mike Utley, Tommy McClure and Sammy Creason; this group became known as the "Dixie Flyers" and provided backup for musicians recording for Atlantic Records. Perhaps their best-known work was for Aretha Franklin's 1970 "Spirit in the Dark". Dickinson also played piano on The Rolling Stones' 1969 "Wild Horses" and on The Flamin Groovies' 1971 "Teenage Head" album." In 1972 he released his first solo album, "Dixie Fried", which was a free-wheeling mixture of songs by Bob Dylan, Carl Perkins and Furry Lewis.

In the 1970s he became known as a producer, recording Big Star's "Third" in 1974, as well as serving as coproducer with Alex Chilton on the rowdy 1979 Chilton album "Like Flies on Sherbert". He has produced Willy DeVille, Green on Red, Mojo Nixon, The Replacements, Tav Falco's Panther Burns, and Screamin' Jay Hawkins, among many others, and in 1977 an aural documentary of Memphis' Beale Street, "Beale Street Saturday Night", which featured performances by Sid Selvidge, Furry Lewis and Dickinson's band Mud Boy and the Neutrons. He has also worked with Ry Cooder and with Dylan. In 1998, he produced Mudhoney's Tomorrow Hit Today.

His sons Luther and Cody, who played on his 2002 solo effort "Free Beer Tomorrow" and the 2006 "Jungle Jim and the Voodoo Tiger", have achieved success on their own as the North Mississippi Allstars.

Jim Dickinson is one of a long line of eccentric and highly quotable Memphians; as he explained to an interviewer in 1992, "If you're not in the recording studio you might as well not do it, because you might get it. And if you get it, hell "stop". Because it's not a question of how well you play, it's a question of how well you play "once"."

Discography

Solo Albums

*"Dixie Fried" (1972, Atlantic). - CD issued on SepiaTone, 2002.
*"A Thousand Footprints in the Sand" (live) (1997, Last Call/Sony, France).
*"Free Beer Tomorrow" (2002, Artemis).
*"Jungle Jim And The Voodoo Tiger" (2006, Memphis Int'l)
*"Fishing with Charlie" (Spoken Word) (2006, Birdman)
*"Killers from Space" (2007, Memphis Int'l)

With Mudboy And The Neutrons

*"Known Felons in Drag" (1986, New Rose).
*"Negro Streets At Dawn" (1993, New Rose).
*"They Walk Among Us" (1995, Koch).

As a compiler

*"Beale Street Saturday Night" (1979, Memphis Development).
*"Delta Experimental Project Vol I" (1988, New Rose/Fan Club, France).
*"Delta Experimental Project Vol II" (1990, New Rose/Fan Club, France).
*"Delta Experimental Project Vol III" (2003, Birdman).

References

* Ankeny, Jason. [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:qiabqjkbojta~T1 "Jim Dickinson Biography."] "All Music Guide". Retrieved AUG. 18, 2008."It Came From Memphis", by Robert Gordon, (Pocket Books). ISBN 0743410459

External links

* http://www.zebraranch.com/ (Official website)
* http://www.furious.com/perfect/jimdickinson.html (Interview)
* http://www.popculturepress.com/jimdickinson.html (Interview)